For the second day running Ino found herself sitting in a tree overlooking one of Konoha's many training grounds hidden amongst the forest that merged with the village at it's boundaries. Yesterday, it had been Asuma who brought herself, Shikamaru and Choji here, to get a glimpse of the ridiculous training regime that the blonde had been putting himself through. Ino hated to admit it, but the only other blonde in their graduating class put her to shame. Since graduation, she had barely even thought about training. As far as she had been concerned - she had made it. She was a ninja, and everything would just fall into place for her. But the news that Shikamaru had nearly been killed on his very first mission, and had only been saved because Naruto, the supposed dead-last, had been around to save him, had quickly put things in perspective for her. She was easily the weakest on her team, would that mean that had it been her, she would have died?

So she had agreed to train, to become stronger. She promised Asuma, and the rest of the team that she would give her all, and she had meant it. She, like Shikamaru, didn't want people to put their lives on the line for her, people to die because she wasn't strong enough to do anything about it. So this morning, she had turned up at her team's usual training ground, for what was to be their first ever real training session. And Asuma hadn't been kidding when he said he'd work them into the ground. He had said from the off that they needed, most of all, to work on their physical fitness. He said theirs was the weakest of all the Genin that had graduated, and was unacceptable for any ninja in the field. So, as a result, he had started by physically grinding them into dust.

Hours and hours of running, changing from sprints to jogs, to a run somewhere in between, had been the start of the hellish regime; followed closely by a series of push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups, and some light sparring with some training weights. Asuma had kept them at it until lunch, giving them a half an hour break to eat and catch their breaths, before going at them all over again. This time, he created three of those Kage Bunshin that Naruto could do, and separated them all, and set about dissecting their fighting style's and abilities, picking apart their taijutsu with crushing efficiency.

Ino was bruised, aching and exhausted, but she wasn't done for the day, and wouldn't be, until she had satiated her curiosity. The subject of which, was now sparring with a strange Inuzuka girl below. They had kicked off with a brief taijutsu exchange, the Inuzuka girl rushing the blonde, and her dogs spreading out around to surround him, and proceeded to attack him in a series of hit and run attacks. The girl attacking, pulling back, followed by each of her dogs attacking from a different and in different patterns. Each attack was blocked or dodged, with what Ino had to admit was a decent level of skill. Naruto's taijutsu had admittedly come on leaps and bounds since he had been in the academy, and from what she could see, the blonde had already eclipsed her in skill by a fair distance.

Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of a grin on the blonde's face, as two of the dogs came at him at once, one from either side. Without hand seals or announcement, two copies of the blonde burst into life, just as the dogs leapt into their respective attacks; and each received a solid kick to the jaw, sending them tumbling back the way they came. Hana, already on the move to follow up on the attack, was surprised enough to hesitate, and Naruto used the opportunity to press his advantage, and just like that, the roles were reversed. Naruto pressed the Inuzuka girl with a near-constant barrage of attacks, using Kage Bunshin to fend off the advances of the ninja dogs. Without the help of her canines Hana struggled to keep up with the clearly physically superior blonde, and eventually she made her mistake.

Seeing Naruto pull his arm back for a punch, she moved to block, and prepared her counter, totally unprepared for a leg sweep from a Kage Bunshin Naruto had created behind her. The leg sweep took her left leg out from under her and left her stumbling back, trying to keep her footing, but the original Naruto wasn't about to allow her the opportunity to regain her footing, and landed a solid kick to the centre of her rib cage, sending the girl sprawling backwards across the floor.

Ino couldn't help but be impressed as the girl climbed back to her feet. She had recognised the other Genin as Kiba's older sister, and the girl was clearly a fairly experienced Genin. Naruto however, appeared to be making her look like a rank amateur. Looking closely though, the girl appeared to still have a grin on her face, so Ino was forced to assume that she wasn't quite finished yet.

"You sure you're pulling your punches, Naruto? That one felt like I was getting hit by a boulder." Hana complained loudly, rubbing her ribcage with her hand, all the while never losing her animalistic grin.

"It's not my fault your such a wuss, I'm trying my best not to hurt you over here!" Naruto looked apologetic, despite the fact he sounded indignant.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. If you're not gonna go easy, Naruto, I'm gonna stop going easy on you!"

Naruto snorted at that. "Come on, as if you could beat me no matter how hard you tried. Let's see what you've got, I promise I won't hurt you."

The female Genin's grin grew even wider as she formed a tiger seal with her hands.

"You asked for it, blondie. Gijū Ninpō: Shikyaku no Jutsu!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he heard the name of the jutsu. It was one of the clan ninjutsu that you could find in the Konoha library, as it was one used so often by the Inuzuka. The idea behind it was that it made it's user more beast-like, improving their reflexes, stamina and speed; and making them more animalistic in appearance, enlarging their claws and teeth. Hana crouched herself down on all fours as her slight transformation finished, and began her attacks anew.

The blonde had expected an increase in speed, but Hana flew at him at a speed he could only just follow, not giving him time to react, as the aimed a clawed swipe at his face, scratching across his cheeks and drawing blood. Shocked into action, Naruto span to face her incoming attack, ducking under her swipe as she leapt at him in a way her ninja dogs were as they battled a pair of his Kage Bunshin. He levelled a punch at her chest as she flew over him, and she twisted in the air to avoid, attempting to lash out with her trailing leg. Blocking, with his remaining arm, he leapt back as Hana turned to face and attack once more, flying at him clawed hands outstretched.

She was still moving too fast for him, and it was only through sheer instinct that Naruto brought his arm up to block her slash once more, receiving another large set of cuts across his arm. This time, he was unprepared for the follow up kick, and it made solid contact with his jaw, sending him stumbling backwards. Two Kage Bunshin formed either side of him, preventing Hana from pressing her advantage, one being dispelled almost instantly form blocking rather than avoiding another clawed attack, the other sidestepping the slash that followed, and lashing out with a fist, only to meet air, as Hana moved her head just enough to avoid the attack, and countered with a dual strike to the clones face and chest, destroying it.

Naruto had regained his footing, but once again Hana was flying at him. This time, though, he was prepared. 'Her attack are in a set pattern. Slash, followed by a kick. She's not as advanced as she should be with her taijutsu in that form, she's fast, but predictable.' He began his ducking movement before she even pulled her claws back for the attack, and by the time she had, it was too late. Naruto rolled under her, low enough to avoid the slash as well as the follow up kick, Hana unable to extend her leg far enough in mid-air to reach him.

Naruto however, was not finished. Lightning crackled around his wrist as he turned, and sent his Raiton: Kaminari Muchi at her, gripping her ankle and yanking her back towards him, the change in direction disorientating her so much that she couldn't react. He brought out his arm, and caught her, rather than attack, pushing her to the ground and pinning her there, producing a kunai as a signal that if he wished, he could kill her.

"Give up?" The blonde asked, grinning ever so slightly as Hana attempted to get her bearings.

Hana grumbled something under her breath, and Naruto eased the pressure on the girl, getting to his feet, and allowing Hana to do the same.

"Holy shit, I knew I was out of practice, but either you're pretty good, or I'm worse than I thought." Naruto looked momentarily taken aback by her compliment, and although that morphed into a thoroughly embarrassed expression, the look momentarily piqued the girls interest. He had beaten her fair and square, and it was hardly a compliment strong enough to warrant a reaction like that.

Little did she know, another blonde not far away, echoed those sentiments exactly. Ino's thoughts were however, combined with the thought that she couldn't think of a time when somebody else had praised Naruto like that. In fact, she couldn't think of a single time where any one had ever said anything nice to Naruto ever, before she and her team had complimented his new outfit.

"What can I say, I've trained really hard since I graduated. I'm still nowhere as strong as I need to be, if I want to be Hokage." Hana laughed at that. He had mentioned hiss dream to be Hokage a few times on their mission, although Hana got the distinct impression he was making a serious effort to reduce the enthusiasm that he expressed it with.

"You know, you never explained that one to me, Naruto. Why do you want to be Hokage?" Naruto's grin morphed into a soft smile, as he took a seat against one of the trees and indicated for the Inuzuka to do the same.

"Well, when I was younger, I wanted to become Hokage because I wanted recognition from the village. You probably already know I was an orphan, and I live alone; so I used to be lonely, almost all the time, especially since I was never all that popular with the village 'cos of my pranks and stuff. I saw being Hokage as the best way to get attention, and to get people to like me."

Hana of course, already knew Naruto was an orphan. Not only that, but unbeknownst to the blonde in front of her, she knew exactly why he was so unpopular in the village Having been three when the Kyuubi attacked, she remembered enough of the immediate aftermath of the attack, to have to be told exactly what was going on to avoid any dangerous situations, such as her blurting out things that she had heard.

Hana had been raised by her Mother to not trust hear say and popular opinion, and use her own judgement where possible, instead of the judgement of others. And she had put that into practice with Naruto, and realised very quickly, he was not under the influence of any demon, as far as she could tell. The only thing stopping her from speaking her mind to Naruto at this point in time, was the smell of another person, just outside the clearing, who had been watching them for some time.

"But then, I learnt what it really meant to be Hokage. You have to be willing to put your life on the line for the village, ready to die for it, and everyone in it. And I decided that I want to be that. I want to be able to protect this village, and the people I hold precious inside it, even if I have to die to do it."

Hana smiled at the blonde. He didn't know it, but his mentality was very similar to that of her clan. Their clan was a 'pack', and they would put their lives on the line to support one another, and to keep the pack safe, and strong. But it also worked on a larger scale. The Inuzuka considered themselves to be one entity in a much larger pack, Konoha itself, and as they entity, they all fought to protect their 'pack'. It was the main reason the Inuzuka had flourished in the way that they had in Konoha. Their mentality was one that matched with the Shodai's, and the mentality of those that followed him.

"Well, the Inuzuka believe that true strength comes from fighting for your 'pack'. From what I can see, that's how you see Konoha, like it's your pack. If you keep thinking like that, even if you never become Hokage, I think you'll get to be as strong as you need to be to protect the village like you want." Hana stood up, and stretched her arms, indicating that the Haimaru brothers, who had all set themselves down around her, should do the same. "Anyways, thanks for the spar, Naruto. We should definitely train together sometime, apparently, I need to get myself back into shape!" Naruto laughed at that, rubbing the back of his head, a wide smile on his face.

"I'd like that Hana, although, you nearly kicked my ass back there! I'm gonna need to train even harder by the looks of things."

Ino watched the girl leave, and Naruto summon another set of Kage Bunshin to resume their sparring on the water. She was still surprised by the sincerity of Naruto's words before. He would die to protect the village. He had seemed daunted by that idea, yet, he also seemed to understand fully what that meant. It brought to mind something that her father had told her, many years ago, after she had listened to Iruka give a lecture on the Yondaime Hokage.

"Daddy, what made the Yondaime so strong?" Ino asked, in between mouthfuls of her dinner. In truth, she didn't at all understand how one man could defeat hundreds in battle, how one man could be strong enough to face down a demon - and win.

"Well, many people would say it's because he was a genius, and knew incredibly powerful jutsu. But I knew the man, he was in my class at the academy, and I fought alongside him more than once. He was no prodigy or genius. But he did work incredibly hard at his skills. He was always improving, always getting better, no matter how hard he found it. But that wasn't the reason he was so strong, either."

Ino looked incredulous at that. "Well then," she demanded impatiently, only not banging her knives and forks on the table as she knew she'd be scolded for it, and not get the answers she wanted. "What was it?!"

"The Will of Fire. The same thing that made the Shodai so strong, and the Nidaime; the same thing that makes the Sandaime so strong now, and the reason this village continues to stand no matter what."

"...Huh?" Was Ino's ever so intelligent response, causing her Inoichi, her father to laugh boisterously at his daughters expense.

"The Will of Fire," Inoichi began, composing himself before continuing. "Is what the Sandaime calls the determination of the shinobi of this village to fight and protect their homes, and their comrades. In Konoha, we value our comrades and loved ones above all else, and we fight to protect them. That, is what gives us our strength. The Yondaime's Will of Fire was like nothing I had ever seen, and likely will ever see in my life. When the village, or anyone from it was in danger, the Yondaime would stop at nothing to save them. The thing that made the Yondaime strong, was that when what he cared about was threatened, his determination to save them, outweighed every other factor that came in to play. No matter the enemy, no matter the odds, he would succeed, even if it killed him."

Ino could see it now. She finally understood what her father had meant. Seeing Naruto train now, and hearing how he had fought to save Shikamaru drove it home with hammer-blow efficiency. What it was that the Yondaime had, Naruto also had - in spades.

Two Days Later

Naruto got started once again on his early morning warm-up, racing through a series of basic exercises and a jog, as he waited for Jiraiya to show. The old pervert was due back today, and was already half an hour late, which by itself was nothing unusual from his experience with the man. Today though, Naruto was particularly antsy to get started. The Sannin undoubtedly knew what he was doing, and from the few days he had been his apprentice officially, Naruto had walked away tactically sharper, with countless tweaks and ideas for his taijutsu, and a handful of ninjutsu.

"Come oooon, where is that stupid pervert?!" Naruto groaned to himself as he finished his run, the final part of his warm up.

"Pervert you say? I'm no pervert, gaki. I'm a super pervert!" Naruto's gaze shot up to where the voice had come from, a vantage point overlooking the training ground he was using.

"Ero-Sennin!" Naruto didn't miss Jiraiya's eye twitch at the nickname, which made Naruto's grin from seeing the Sannin grow even wider.

"You miss the Great Jiraiya, gaki? More importantly, I hear that my oh so precious apprentice has already started his very own list of 'powerful enemies out to kill him'. On his first mission too! Your Father would be proud."

"You heard about Gaara?" Naruto asked, unable to keep the surprise out f his voice.

"Of course! They don't call me the spymaster of Konoha for nothing, gaki. Besides, it's a bit hard not to find out when your jinchuuriki apprentice goes and picks a fight with Suna's very own Gaara of the Sand, jinchuuriki of the Ichibi."

That particular piece of information stunned the blonde into silence. Another jinchuuriki? He knew of course, that logically there would have to be more. He had read up on jinchuuriki, unsurprisingly given his own status, and knew they were used to maintain some manner of 'balance of power' between the shinobi villages. Therefore, there had to be at least five other jinchuuriki - one for each of the major shinobi villages. But for there to be one his own age? And to be quite so much better than him? It was unexpected to say the least.

"Unfortunately, Naruto; that presents us with a problem." Jiraiya spoke once more, his voice and expression serious now, as he leapt down from his perch and joined the blonde.

"You mean other than the bloodthirsty Genin, who now apparently is also a jinchuuriki, and is coming here with the intent to bury me in about ten foot of sand." The Sannin simply rolled his eyes at the blonde's quip, and pressed on.

"Gaara, from what I can tell, was not sealed by a master of the art. The beast can directly influence him, and as a result, he's massively unstable. Now, I don't have to check up on things with my network until after the Chunin exams at least; which means I'll be on hand in most situations. However, I had sort of been planning to enter you in the exams." Naruto predictably, shot up at that.

"I thought you had to enter those in teams?"

"Traditionally, you do yes. And I'm having Sarutobi-sensei look into a team for you anyway. But actually, there are no rules stopping you participating as a pair, or indeed individually. This is the crux of the problem though. There are parts of the exam where I'm not going to be on hand to dive in if you're attacked by a bloodthirsty sand-demon, if you catch my drift."

"So, I have to train then - at least enough to be able to get myself out alive if he does come for me in the exam?"

"Or, you could not enter. Leave it for the next time around?" Jiraiya put forward the suggestion, even though he already knew the response.

"Not an option. For a start, this is the next step towards becoming Hokage. If I backed down the second things got tough, I may as well give up on the title forever, 'cos I wouldn't be fit for it. Secondly, there'll be other Konoha genin in the exams right. I'll bet any money at least a few of the rookie teams will enter. There's now way I could sit out knowing that Gaara's out there with them. Not a chance. If he's busy with me, he won't be able to do any damage to anyone else."

Naruto paused for a moment, before standing up and readjusting his body armour, and looked the Sannin straight in the eye.

"So, what's the plan for the next month?"

Jiraiya grinned, and bit his thumb, drawing blood; before racing through a series of hand seals that Naruto didn't recognise.

"I was hoping you'd ask me that. Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

Jiraiya finished his hand seals and slammed his palm on the ground, causing a large explosion of smoke, and when it cleared, Jiraiya stood on the head of a large toad. It was a deep red colour, and had jet black tribal markings across the top half of it's body, causing it's bright yellow eyes to stand out even more. But Naruto failed to take any of this in. The boys eyes had narrowed in on what the giant toad held in it's mouth, a scroll, similar to that which Jiraiya carried on his back.

"You're going to let me sign the toad contract?" The blonde asked quietly, disbelief evident in his voice.

"Well, you are my apprentice. Not only that, but the only other person to sign it in my life time was your father. It's practically your birth right Naruto. Consider it the first part of your Inheritance."

The toad extended it's tongue, which was wrapped around the contract, towards Naruto, laying the scroll gently at his feet. The blonde bent down, and carefully unwound the scroll to the most recent entries.

'Namikaze Minato'

He only allowed his eyes to linger on his Father's name for a few moments, before shifting his gaze to the freshest blank spot on the contract. He bit his own thumb, knowing already that the contract had to be signed in blood; and wrote his own name with the bloodied thumb, before dabbing the rest of his fingers with blood and leaving a print, as the others before him had.

Jiraiya leant over and picked up the contract when he'd finished, and presented it back to the toad, who took it in his tongue, and giving Jiraiya a small nod, disappeared back to his realm in a puff of smoke.

"Now, Naruto, I'll show the seals slowly a few times, and we'll get to learning more about the toads once you've given the jutsu a few tries." Jiraiya began moving through the seals slowly, and Naruto paid keen attention, making sure he remembered the exact pattern. "You have to remember that summoning also requires a small blood sacrifice for it to work. It's because of the fuuinjutsu required to, essentially, teleport the toads to your location"

The blonde nodded slowly, before biting his own thumb, and beginning the sequence of hand seals himself. He tried to mould a good amount of chakra to match the jutsu, ever so slightly wary of overloading what was essentially, a ninjutsu that manipulated space and time. The little he had read about the topic indicated that ninja who messed with those particular forces tended to end up dead.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

The puff of smoke was far smaller than Jiraiya's, and Naruto instantly knew that the first toad he had summoned would not exactly be what they'd call 'battle ready'.

"Yo, you must be the new summoner, right? Name's Gamakichi, good to meet ya."

Naruto couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the small, bright orange toad, the had just waved a greeting at him. Definitely not battle ready.

"Gamakichi? I haven't see you since you were a tadpole, how's you're Bunta doing?" Jiraiya asked, grin plastered on his face. His apprentice was obviously a bit disappointed with his effort. What he didn't know, was that he'd just summoned the son of the boss toad, Gamabunta; which actually would have taken a particularly good effort for someone brand new to the jutsu. For now, he'd just enjoy Naruto's displeasure.

"Jiraiya... Well, I wouldn't summon him for a while if I were you. I don't know what you did old man, but you sure pissed Dad off." The summon returned his focus to the blonde that had summoned him. "Well, what's your name, kid. And more importantly, d'you have any sweets?" Once again the young toad left Naruto struggling for words, though he eventually composed himself enough.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet you Gamakichi." He rubbed his chin before continuing. "And I don't have any sweets. But I tell you what, once I know how to summon you specifically, I'll call you back and get you some, okay?"

"You're not so bad, blondie! I guess I should head back, though, and tell Dad what's going on. See ya later!"

And with that, the toad disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Naruto, try again, with a bit more chakra."

The blonde nodded, and flashed through the hand seals again, slamming his palm to the ground.

"Hi! I'm Gamatatsu! ...Are there any snacks here?"

Naruto sighed, much to Jiraiya's amusement. For some reason, the blonde just knew this was going to be a long day.

Naruto tore up yet another weed with particular venom, angrily stuffing it into a bag, that was rapidly filling.

He had tried, really, really hard to be civil. He tried being polite, and nice. I mean, as polite and nice as you can be to a human being who communicates almost entirely though a combination of different grunts, and refuses to even acknowledge that you exist. Actually, that's not true. The brooding prodigy that was Uchiha Sasuke, had shown considerable interest when Naruto had used the Kage Bunshin to try and speed up the job - an idea which Kakashi had stopped in it's infancy. Something about making it too easy.

Sakura was every bit as beautiful to him as he remembered. A thought soon tempered with the fact that she ignored him, and almost anyone else for that matter, in exchange for trying to catch Sasuke's attention in some way. The only time he'd gotten a word out of her at all was when she complained that he'd be on the mission at all, and when he tried to ask her, as a matter or politeness really, how she was enjoying being a ninja. She had just told him to go away.

Sai on the other hand, was just weird. I mean, he was annoying in his own way, of course. Naruto had nearly tried to break his nose the first time he had called him gay, but Naruto let it slide, when he noticed there wasn't any kind of malice in Sai's words. He did however, make Naruto uncomfortable. There was something off about him, and Naruto couldn't put his finger on what it was. He just knew it was familiar to him, like he'd experienced it before somewhere.

In short, the blonde had endured a thoroughly miserable afternoon, performing today's D-rank with Team 7; and had spent most of it wishing he was on one with Team 10 instead, or could at least be practicing the thrice-damned Kuchiyose no jutsu. The blonde had spent all afternoon, essentially, summoning Gamakichi and Gamatatsu over and over again, much to the annoyance of both him, and the toads. That said, he had formed the basis of a friendship with the pair, albeit one based on food. Still, Naruto could live with that. They were both nice enough, and Jiraiya was pretty adamant that once Gamakichi was a bit bigger, he'd be one hell of a toad to be able to summon on demand. Still, he really wanted to summon a toad he could use now, to help him in the exams, and the sooner he could nail that, the sooner he could balance out his training again.

"I think you guys are just about done for today." Kakashi said, from his vantage point - the bench in the garden they'd been working in, where he'd spent the last few hours reading and watching the four of them work. "Team 7 can head home, you're done for today. Me and Naruto will go and hand in the mission."

With that, the three members of Team 7 took off, only Sai giving a cursory wave to the blonde and the Jonin as they went.

"Assholes." Naruto grumbled under his breath, only half hoping the Jonin hadn't heard him.

"I can only really apologise on behalf of my team, Naruto. I'm not really sure exactly what I need to do to deal with them at the moment." Naruto waved off the Jonin's apology, with a casual wave of his arm.

"Not exactly your fault Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke's always been a total bastard, and Sakura's been like that since she met Sasuke. I'm used to it at this point, really."

"Still, I'd like to make up for it." Kakashi said, his single eye indicating that he was smiling beneath the mask that covered his face. "I owe you a jutsu anyways, don't I?"

Naruto grinned and caught the scroll that Kakashi threw his way with practiced ease, and read it's label.

"Bunshin Daibakuha? Now that sounds like my kind of jutsu. Thanks, Kakashi-sensei."

"Like I said, I owed you. Now then, let's go see the Hokage so I can get back to my book... I was just getting to the good bit."

The Next Day

Naruto was officially done being cautious with this bastard jutsu. If it wanted to suck him backwards into a inter-dimensional black hole (Naruto would be the first to admit he still read too much manga that what was likely good for him), the so be it. He was going to summon a bigger toad, or he was going to die trying, dammit. Gathering more chakra than he had ever really tried to before, a feat he was aware was only possible because of his work on his chakra control; he bit his thumb, and raced through the hand seals that he had gotten to know incredibly well over the last day and a half.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

The puff of smoke nearly totally engulfed the blonde, and he struggled to keep his balance as he felt himself be lifted up off the ground by at least his own height.

"So, the new summoner has finally decided to stop bothering poor Gamakichi! Pleased to meet you, Uzumaki Naruto, I am Gamasensō, the Shaolin toad of Mount Myoboku."